1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sintered body, a magnetic head slider, and a method of manufacturing a sintered body.
2. Related Background Art
A magnetic head slider including a thin-film magnetic head came into use in a hard disk drive for the first time in 1979. The magnetic head slider at that time has been referred to as mini slider (100% slider) in general. Thereafter, magnetic head sliders have been reducing their size so as to become the nano slider (50% slider) whose size is about 50% that of the mini slider by way of the micro slider (70% slider) whose size is about 70% that of the mini slider.
In general, the magnetic head slider comprises a multilayer body, provided on an alumina-based substrate, including a thin-film magnetic head. Such a magnetic head slider is obtained by the steps of stacking a multilayer body including a thin-film magnetic head on a substrate so as to yield a multilayer structure; then cutting the multilayer structure in parallel with the laminating direction, so as to form an exposed surface of the thin-film magnetic head; and lapping (grinding) the exposed surface, so as to yield an air bearing surface.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. S 57-82172, for example, a conventional magnetic head slider uses a high-strength sintered body mainly composed of alumina and titanium carbide, i.e., so-called AlTiC sintered body, as a substrate for the magnetic head slider. It has also been known to use an alumina sintered body containing about 5 to 15% of carbon as a substrate for a magnetic head slider (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-173034).